Tattoos have come a long way. What started as a hallmark for sailors, gangsters, prisoners and a subculture of “individuals” in the 1950’s has quickly caught up as a trendy type of body modification in our culture today—especially with the younger demographic.
According to a study conducted by Postnova Analytics, a third of people aged 18-24 have been “inked.” But have any of them ever questioned what’s exactly inside that ink they got put under their skin, usually for life?
The German biotechnology company researched this phenomenon and found that tattoo ink could possess metallic impurities that can be toxic. In fact, between 2003 and 2004, the FDA has received 150 reports of bad skin reactions in the U.S. right after tattooing or even years later.
“Besides metallic nanoparticles (for example titanium dioxide that is added to enhance color strength) tattoo inks also contain non-metal colorants, which can be contaminated by traces of toxic metals. For instance, nickel in tattoo ink can cause cutaneous allergies,” Lisa Schilder, Ph.D, sales & distributor manager for Postnova told R&D Magazine after her session presentation titled “Tattoo Ink Analysis” at Pittcon 2016 earlier this month. “Therefore, quantitative assessment of the possibly allergenic ingredients in tattoo ink is of particular interest.”
In order to assess the potential toxicity in NPs in biological systems, extensive studies are necessary:
- Size distribution of nanoparticles
- Elemental composition
- Mobility within skin and body
Postnova used an analytical technique for characterization of nanomaterials called Field-Flow Fractionation-ICP-MS to study the size and chemical composition of tattoo ink nanoparticles. FFF reduces the complexity of tattoo inks that contain several different metals—both dissolved and particular. The researchers sorted these constituents by size using the interplay between two forces—the separation force, such as crossflow field, and diffusion. The coupled online-light scattering and mass spectrometry detectors can then determine the sizes and elemental composition more accurately, since only one particle at a time is contained in its measuring cell.
“We cannot gain the same results using only those detectors with the non-separated sample,” Schilder explained.
What this study found was that there are different nanoparticles, for example, titanium dioxide, copper and aluminum oxide with various sized (10 nm up to 100 µm contained) in several tattoo inks. Some of these metals are not only contained in a solid or particular form, but also are present in dissolved form. The investigated tattoo inks also contained Chromium and nickel, metals related to bad skin reactions and cutaneous allergies post tattooing.
“We need to know the exact chemical composition of tattoo inks since this helps to correlate these results with clinical findings and gather more data to set up regulations for tattoo inks— which have to be followed by the manufacturers,” she added.
Today, no regulations exist concerning metals in tattoos.
Schilder advises a person interested in getting this type of body modification to first ask what’s inside the ink prior to going under the needle to prevent an allergic reaction down the road.
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